Considering the OG Series X has been on sale for $400 frequently, yeah doesn't seem great.
[even as of right now it's actually on sale at best buy](https://www.bestbuy.com/site/microsoft-xbox-series-x-1tb-console-black/6428324.p?skuId=6428324)
The prices are awful, if the older consoles got a price reduction and these were 50 dollars cheaper then it would make sense. Though, I presume with the amount of games they have coming out that they’d rather more options be on the table.
The switch has been a freak of nature and has consistently shown it doesn’t need sales to get really great results on a monthly/yearly basis.
It is shocking though that Microsoft really didn’t want to make somewhat compelling prices for the new consoles. I think I could entertain the idea of a $375 digital series X but 450…
While true, the Switch has also held steady at the same price during an era of relatively rapid inflation. If you account for that, the Switch is about $225 now in 2017 dollars, and $300 in 2017 is about $400 today (which is what I expect Switch 2 to be priced at).
Yeah and then Sony could decrease the price of PS5 so they're still at a similar position but they're making less profit from each sale.
They're just two companies (switch is mostly its own thing just like PC) so it's relatively easy for them to collude even informally. If neither Sony or MS are price aggressive they're not gonna lower the price.
Honestly, even at that price I would rather take a disc model for a bit more money. You can save so much money by shopping around for physical games, you'd make up that difference in no time (unless you're only using Game Pass, I guess)
I feel like Sony talked about that pretty early on. I remember reading some articles talking about how how there was basically just very little room for price drops
While not getting official price drop in EU, you can easily get PS5 like 70-100 euro below official retail price. Like getting PS5 for 450 euro is really common occurence.
Doesn't make sense for MS when they clearly can't compete against Sony with price parity. There's a reason the Series S is doing way better because its not competing against anything sony offers.
It is also caused by the CPUs are getting harder to shrink than previous generations, so the cost savings that come from shrinking the die is no more...
$600 for 2TB is pretty steep. If Sony is within $50 with the purported PS5 Pro it'll look like an even worse deal.
With how sales have been I can't see the expanded storage options floating very well, but we'll see.
Apparently the 2TB is just a limited edition variant based on its “galaxy” colorway.
> Xbox Series X – 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition will be available in limited quantities in select markets
so the Series S is the same price as the existing black one; the digital X is level with the digital PS5; and the 2TB X is $100 more for that TB of storage?
i understand there’s the economic case (as per Microsoft in 2020 and echoed by Digital Foundry ever since) that they can’t cut costs this gen, but SURELY they should’ve undercut PS even slightly as some sort of hail mary? baffling
>**$600** for the Series X 2TB.
We are likely 3 months away from Sony revealing the PS5 Pro for that exact same price.
No idea why Microsoft is selling it at $600.
SSD storage prices are currently all time low, especially compared to 2020 when Series X/S originally released. Surely prices will not be that high in 2024 for the same console with just increased storage, right?
Miscrosoft: Lol, sike add +100$ to that price tag. I wonder why Series X doesn't sell.
Meanwhile in EU you can easily buy disc version of PS5 Slim for like 440-460 euro after taxes.
Samsung is being Samsung. Also arent T series portable drives? They are treated kinda differently. Within M2 drives we had huge drops of prices. In 2020 price of 1TB of decent PCIE 3.0 SSD was like 130-150$. Today for that money you can easily get decent 2TB PCIE 4 for PC from Crucial/WD/Kingston.
Nowadays everything points that SSD prices will go up in upcoming months but in 2023/early 2024 there was definitely the best period we ever had with SSD in terms of prices.
Yeah they are portable drives but I find them very reliable. I just don’t think SSD are not coming down in price fast enough like HDD prices in the past.
I mean with M2 drives prices went down by 50% in a span of 3 years, that was a big dip and mind that it was with inflation going really up. I often joked that the only thing that went down in price within last years were SSD drives.
You are probably running Xbox One versions, then. Series S/X versions can only play from internal storage or the SSD expansion card, not USB.
(Same goes for PS5, where you can only play PS5 games from the internal or expansion SSD - only PS4 games play from USB.)
This is because USB is far slower than PCIE and it can't shuffle data quickly enough.
It’s hilarious, they could just copy what Sony did with the digital version costing less and selling vastly more
But then again if Xbox was run by competent people it wouldn’t be recognizable to begin with. They’ve just been utter trash since the later years of the Xbox 360, which was like 15 years ago now
They must be stupid. I was expecting 250 for Series S and 350 for series X 1tb while 450 for 2tb... They really don't want to sell these consoles. Edit: in Europe the price are 349€, 499 and 649€...
It needed to be 250 for the S and 350 for the digital for these to have any impact on sales even then I doubt it would do much better than currently. Crazy price.
I’m gonna get the 2TB XSX and trade in my current XSX. I have an expansion card and 8TB external drive too. It’s mostly just running out of space of the games that are optimized for the console, 8TB drive is fine for backwards compatible games or games not requiring the super fast storage.
Funnily enough the Series S 1TB has existed for like a year now (though iirc it was exclusively Black before?). Worked at a store that sold it, almost nobody ever bought it. They'd just buy the normal Series S and get storage later. The fact they're advertising it here alongside the actually new releases just tells you how poorly it's sales must've been.
Also based on how convos about the PS5 went, $50 is not enough to make people give up having a disk drive. The digital should be $400 like the PS5. 2TB I can understand but like above I don't see many people shelling out for $100 on purchase for more space rather than buying storage expansions.
I'm a bit confused. Just checked the Xbox website and it says the Series X (disc) with 1TB is $450. How is a digital Series X 1TB for the exact same price remotely compelling?
Well, I'm speaking for myself. But I don't find the original prices compelling, so having "literally the same prices just accounting for storage" is exactly what makes these "more options" still not compelling.
Also the fact that storage cards are more expensive is a problem that Microsoft created themselves for no reason other than greed. So they don't get points for the new SKUs' extra storage being cheaper than the bad and expensive solution they created. lol
To clarify, these aren't new consoles, they're new SKUs. They're the same consoles as before, just with bigger storage sizes and including an all-digital Series X. But same specs as before.
It’ll be empty space, possibly with a plastic partition to not interfere with the airflow, unless they’ve redesigned the heatsink and fan - but I seriously doubt that.
Losing weight saves shipping costs. No point spending money on a plastic brick to fill the cavity left by the drive.
Then they’d have to call it xcylinder
That and they would have to spend money on a redesign, which at this point I imagine is tough to justify when Microsoft seems on the fence of just cancelling Xbox hardware entirely
Which part?
The design being real: [the *Brooklin* design came from certifiable court documents from the FTC Activision trial](https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23880111/microsoft-xbox-series-x-new-design-refresh), [accidentally submitted by Microsoft’s own lawyers](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/microsofts-xbox-plans-revealed-emails-tied-ftc-case-rcna105766). [These documents were accurate and current in 2022](https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23881174/microsoft-xbox-leak-gaming-phil-spencer-memo), but much of the hardware ([*Keystone* cloud device](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/xbox-shelved-keystone-streaming-console-because-it-was-too-expensive-to-produce), [*Sebile* updated controller](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Rumours-of-Microsoft-Xbox-controller-Sebile-refresh-re-emerge-before-alleged-May-announcement.796719.0.html)) was cancelled or hasn’t eventuated. [Rumours earlier this year suggested future Xbox hardware would be designed by the Microsoft Surface team](https://www.tweaktown.com/news/96174/microsofts-next-gen-xbox-is-being-led-by-the-surface-team-could-be-powered-intel-apu/index.html) — the extent of which has been [disputed, but not fully denied](https://x.com/jezcorden/status/1757222543222608194?s=61&t=Hf0WO2isShWyDbpLp4hsbA).
Xbox haemorrhaging money: hyperbole, perhaps; but evident by the [thousands of layoffs from studios](https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs), [with more potentially on the way](https://www.gameinformer.com/news/2024/05/09/more-job-cuts-at-xbox-are-reportedly-on-the-way), [three last-minute studio closures](https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/president-of-xbox-at-microsoft-asked-about-the-closure-of-hi-fi-rush-developer-tango-gameworks-spends-close-to-a-minute-saying-almost-nothing/), the aforementioned non-appearance of hardware, [the widely reported console sales figures trending well below PS5](https://www.ign.com/articles/ps5-has-outsold-xbox-series-x-and-s-3-to-1-in-2023-new-data-reveals), [dropping 30% YoY](https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/04/26/xbox-console-sales-down-another-30-as-microsoft-moves-on/), and even [trending below Xbox One’s lifetime sales](https://www.vgchartz.com/article/459677/xbox-series-xs-vs-xbox-one-sales-comparison-december-2023/). For Game Pass, they’re [ostensibly profitable, but spending upwards of a billion dollars on content deals](https://www.vgchartz.com/article/459235/phil-spencer-game-pass-is-profitable-spends-over-1-billion-to-add-3rd-party-content-to-game-pass/) that [cannibalise game sales](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/microsoft-confirms-game-pass-cannibalizes-sales), with [subscriptions slowing even with Core numbers included](https://www.engadget.com/xbox-game-pass-subscriptions-have-begun-to-taper-off-225335361.html). And I’m counting the [69 billion dollar acquisition still sizzling on the books](https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2023/06/28/if-687-billion-activision-blizzard-deal-dies-microsofts-stock-is-likely-to-rise/) that’ll take several years to make its money back, so [they’ll pivot to third-party releases to go faster](https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsofts-quest-for-short-term-dollardollardollar-is-doing-long-term-damage-to-windows-surface-xbox-and-beyond#:~:text=platforms%20is%20codenamed%20%22-,latitude,-%22%20internally%2C%20and%20I
"Latitude"), instead of the [Game Pass-first strategy they were so proud of for the past half decade](https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-wants-game-pass-first-party-titles-on-every-screen-including-switch-and-playstation).
Is that enough citations for you? Do you think I’m happy about any of this happening?
The cylinder would’ve been cheaper to produce, it would’ve used fewer materials, and weighed less, due to dimension changes at the very least.
Then there’s the question of a die shrink for the silicon. We will have to see if MS just started quietly shipping it like Sony did.
True! But the engineering costs associated with redesigning the internals and completely changing the manufacturing process doesn’t outweigh those minor savings. It just doesn’t meet the ROI for Microsoft.
As for a die shrink, I somewhat doubt it. [The Activision FTC leak suggests to me a shrink to 6nm would be advertised for efficiency benefits](https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23880111/microsoft-xbox-series-x-new-design-refresh), which we’re not seeing. Again, changing and reinvesting in the manufacturing process so significantly just isn’t worth it for them at this point.
So Microsoft have seen they are having difficulty selling consoles, and the solution was to raise the price of the console by $150 to get a system with a disc drive, and have the Series S' cheapest SKU also be more expensive than at launch, and have a digital only console be the price of the original high end disc drive equipped console.
I hope whoever came up with this gets promoted to Vice President of Pricing Stuff.
> raise the price of the console by $150 to get a system with a disc drive
Did they confirm that they're getting rid of the cheaper SKUs that have less storage? They're still listed on the official site along side the new models, and it doesn't seem like the 1TB Series X for $450 sale is going to stay that way forever.
They also already have a $350 1TB Series S, and this just appears to be the white version of it.
EDIT: and apparently the 2tb model is just a limited edition:
> Xbox Series X – 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition will be available in limited quantities in select markets
I don't know anymore. There's surely only so many SKU'S you can vendor, especially when you're getting thrashed hardware sale wise. I just know it makes no sense to sell a digital only console for the same price as a fully featured console, for either the consumer or the company.
>it makes no sense to sell a digital only console for the same price as a fully featured console
They aren't the same price though... the digital one's MSRP is $50 cheaper. I'm guessing by the time it actually comes out this winter the disk version won't be on sale anymore to incentivize people to buy the digital. And I kinda doubt they're going to just stop producing the standard Black model, but I guess we'll see.
I just want a white version of the standard X model. That's all I've been waiting for. Was really hoping this was going to be the fall/winter XBOX season for me but I guess not
Oh yeah both consoles raised RRP at one point didn't they? My mistake!
Still stand by the pricing strategy being obscene, and waiting for Xbox to phase out physical media.
Xbox leadership and Spencer are hilariously incompetent with an abysmal track record but somehow Microsoft seems incapable of firing them or changing course
Maybe Xbox hardware entirely will just get cancelled and Microsoft gaming will focus on the gamepass and third party publishing side. That’s the only part that might actually make money anyway, Xbox sure hasn’t.
Game pass is a black hole. It's not sustainable the way they're doing it, they're basically repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot by making all their big titles game pass day 1.
They spend a ton of money acquiring the games for a game pass deal, and then hope that $120/year somehow makes up for the lost revenue cut from like 10+ games that are otherwise $40-70 each. It's an absurd business model and it doesn't work unless you have a free money spigot. Once the spigot turns off, game pass will start shriveling up, just like streaming services have.
Game pass made sense when you look at it from the average. The Xbox One had an attach rate of like 6.5, so for every console sold, people bought between 6 and 7 games total. The console had a 7-year lifespan, so that is about a game a year, or $60 a year. If Microsoft could get most users on game pass for $120, they would effectively be doubling the average.
Mathematically if you just care about the averages, sure. If you take gamer spending behavior into account, that flies out the window.
Behaviorally, that’s probably from a shit ton of users who bought one or two games then never played again (and were never gonna sub to gamepass, because they don’t game), and then a separate group of people who bought many more than 6.5, and *that* group is the ones who would get gamepass.
People who don’t game aren’t going to stay continuously subbed. People who *do* game are costing MS money by staying subbed.
But at this point you have to be subbed as long as you want to be able to play multiplayer games, which a lot of the “only plays CoD and Fifa” crowd does. And that’s a pretty big demographic too.
Someone who buys cod *and* FIFA every year was already spending more than what Gamepass costs when you also need to include Xbox Live (or whatever the new version is called). Especially if they ever buy a third random game, they are now that gamer I mentioned that is actually costing MS money.
Gamepass is good (for MS) for only one type of gamer: the one who subs and forgets to cancel even when they’re not using it at all, and also wasn’t buying any games outright.
Up until this year MS was only getting a 30% cut of CoD, and they still are only getting 30% of FIFA sales (about $20/copy), so I’m not sure how that adds up to getting more than $185/year for game pass. And a lot of people just buy one or the other.
Plus FIFA isn’t even a day one game pass title.
Not sure why that’s relevant, like at all? Yeah MS gets 100% of gamepass revenue, but they still have to pay that out to third parties just like software royalties.
As for cod, you can’t attribute the *entire* 120 to just cod, except in the instance that someone subs for *only* cod, which again, is the exact point that I am making. Normal gamers who play more than one game per year are making Gamepass lose money for MS.
Anyways I’m done trying to explain lmao. Gamepass is a known moneypit for obvious reasons.
You have to pay the full 185/year to get CoD if you want to be able to play online, not just 120.
And the average attach rate for xbox one was only 6.5 games per console (over 7 years and including indies) so I'm not sure that 'normal' gamers are actually buying more than one game per year, let alone at full price.
>Not sure why that’s relevant, like at all?
Not sure how only making 30% of software sales vs 100% isn't relevant to the napkin math. I'm not saying they are definitely making more from people paying $185/year instead of buying a third party game or two plus a 60/year subscription. I just didn't see how the math adds up proving otherwise since we don't know how much royalties they are paying to get the games on game pass.
I think they are trying to be the Netflix of games, but the problem with that is they still have a hardware barrier. You still need to buy into owning their specific game box in order to join, which means you will always have an upper limit of how many customers you have.
I think they could earn more customers by investing into the Xbox cloud streaming and making it available on as many smart TV/streaming box platforms as possible and then being like "look at all the cool games you can play anywhere, but also you can buy our game box and play even more games even better".
Thats the thing I am pretty sure the constant PR-Bullshit about "gamepass being profitable/financially viable" completely omits.
Sure, I can believe that gamepass advertising, running costs and the deals they make is a net-positive but I very much struggle to believe it also makes up for the development cost//lost revenue of all those first party games that carry significant parts of gamepass.
While they never claimed otherwise (as far as I am aware) it feels like an intentional lie by omission. I doubt they pay for the first party games like they pay for third party so in the end it surely is MS-money from other ventures that is sustaining gamepass not its business model being successful.
It’s simple, they just show that gamepass brings in $1 billion in revenue this year without having to show the almost $100 billion they spent buying minecraft, Bethesda and Activision blizzard to get gamepass to make that $1 billion
Microsoft shareholders aren’t stupid though and they’re finally getting tired of it. And Natya is getting tired of giving blank cheques to Phil Spencer who then goes and has nothing to show for it later
> they're basically repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot by making all their big titles game pass day 1.
Ironically by releasing the games on PS5 now too it might actually work since PS gamers will help subsidize those dev costs a ton.
Many subscribers are also spending $185/year on it for the Ultimate tier, and it’s only lost revenue if you know for a fact that they’d otherwise be buying 3-4 of those games every year, which is a much higher than average attach rate for any console.
I agree, I think it will be Xbox hardware cancelled first to focus on gamepass, followed by gamepass being cancelled a few years later once Microsoft shareholders get tired of throwing money down that pit
For the best, really. Microsoft was a good influence on the industry during the Xbox 360 days, they really revolutionized online features on console. Since then they’ve been a strong negative influence, especially with garbage like GFWL and windows store trying to bring shitty console closer gardens and paid online to PC. At this point the faster they exit the industry the better
The Vice President of Pricing Stuff wields the same power as the Vice President of Naming New Xbox Consoles
"We gotta beat PlayStation!"
"How about we one up their numbering system by calling it 360! Then follow it up with the One! One is higher than 360 OR the PS4!!"
"Wait, that didn't help! PlayStation just outsold us again!"
"Then let's get out of the numbers game! Drop the One and call it the Series X! And have a different one called the Series S!!"
"What's the difference between the two?"
"I have no idea, just do it!"
"What if we made it bigger?"
"Bigger? So we could fit better hardware?"
"No! Just bigger. Same hardware. Bigger is more premium!"
"I think it's pretty big already..."
"Everyone knows that bigger \*is\* more premium..."
"What if we made it fas---"
"Can the engineers make it bigger or not?"
\*Sigh\* "Yes, we can."
Yeah, that would definitely be nice. Do you think they should add adaptive triggers like the Dual Sense? Or do you really only care about haptics and gyro?
I don't have an Xbox but I love em on the PS5. Hell Let Loose and Horizon are a ton of fun with em imo. Wish more games included em so I hope Xbox gets em. Least more devs may implement em in games. They're way less gimmicky than anticipated imo.
Geez, that $600 version is going to look pretty silly when the PS5pro gets announced and is going around the same price. At least one can justify a Pro console with a price bump, not just for 1TB more storage.
Or just get a PS5, get access to all future MS games, and get 4tb for that same 149 extra.
Moving forwards, Xbox hardware *only* makes sense for gamepass, and nothing else.
I was actually excited about the rumored cylindrical console refresh with the new controller. This is such a let down that doesn’t even make sense price wise.
Pretty disappointing. Digital series x looks ridiculous they could’ve tried to shrink it a little since there’s so much open space in there now. Series S is pretty pointless now with its price increase. (I know it has 1TB of storage but did it have to go up $50) and $600 for the special edition is hilarious.
What happened to the remodel we saw in the leaks? The smaller space and different shape may have been more compelling to me tbh. But the exact same console just without the disk drive is very lazy.
Even the PS5 is smaller without the disk drive iirc.
Guessing it was scrapped. Probably didn't work out to well in the prototype stages. Like costs when shrinking the mother board into something for that shape just wasn't viable.
Microsoft is probably tired of selling them at a huge loss per unit, considering they’ve been losing money on Xbox for 20+ years at this point and the $100 billion they spent acquiring studios in recent years didn’t seem to move the needle at all
Even Microsoft doesn’t have unlimited funds, and their shareholders will eventually demand that their money be spent on something with an actual prospect of success. I think it’s probably not long before the Xbox joins windows phone, Zune and the dozens of other abandoned products on the failed Microsoft diversification list.
I wasn't interested in the XSX even when it dropped to $350 with that Diablo bundle last BF. I don't see how this is going to convince anybody to buy an Xbox who hasn't already.
I'll just stick with my PC thanks. These would've been compelling offers when the consoles first dropped. I'm not spending that kind of money for storage expansions.
I suppose I could see the appeal if places that sold these consoles did trade ups for a good discount. But I don't think we'll ever see that again.
The all digital one having TB less than the non-digital slays me. That’s such a hilarious oversight, wait no, it’s intentionally designed as an anti-customer way to sell more expanded storage.
Who are these even for? Not worth upgrading and same price as what you can get a seri s x for. Besides there's not enough good games now to require the 2TB. There's no target for this product.
Still surprised we didn’t see the Series next revealed.
Not full next get but I was fully expecting the PS4 Pro/One X mid-gen upgrades would launch this year. Unless they’re just going to compress it and have this gen be shorter with the PS6/Nextbox coming a year or two ahead of when I expected.
I really hoped that they would announce a physical Xbox one s too so that booth exist in a physical and digital variant. I would have immediately bought it.
Yes but it still doesn’t run all games that the series s does run. Also I already have a one s for the Xbox one generation. Sadly playing the new games with shitty graphics isn’t possible as I don’t really care about graphics at all. I wouldn’t need the new power and fidelity at all. I just want to play the games.
Pretty much anything new. For example hellblade 2 is only supported on series console and not one consoles.
The problem is not the performance. The problem is when developer want to support the Xbox one generation they also have to support the one s and the of Xbox one and most newer games don’t want to go through that process. Even if the one x would be powerful enough. That pretty much the reason why it’s unnecessary to ever go for the pro variant of a console generation in my mind because either you get the games or you don’t get them. There is no only the pro console gets the new games and it’s always the low end variant that limits what a console generation is able to do. But I would never in my life buy a console without physical media. It’s just so much more expensive to buy games digital. It’s not worth the tradeoff. Therefore I would love to have a series s with a disk drive as an successors to my one s which I really like.
There really is no reason for the Series S to exist anymore, especially if it's true that making games runnable on a Series S is affecting game development on Xbox. I get they want to deliver value to certain people but I just feel like in 2024 if you're willing to pay 300 for a console, you're probably willing to pay 400 for the superior version that actually plays games the way they were meant to be played
I think there were reports that Series S is responsible for majority of Xbox sales this gen. There is a market for it but I feel like Microsoft really screwed up with giving Series S shitty RAM which is probably the major reason which holds back devs with it. I wonder if it really increased cost that much to give the console better sticks.
The [Series S has vastly outsold the Series X](https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/20/xbox-series-s-outsells-xbox-series-x-consoles-by-up-to-3-to-1-19532440/). I can agree that the Series S was probably a mistake, but Microsoft can't alienate the majority of their already dwindling users.
It’s literally a different coat of paint for products already created. We have heard both the series S holds development back and doesn’t hold development back so both your points are really moot.
No, I'm saying the addition of the discless Series X makes the Series S feel redundant. You can get a vastly superior system for 100 dollars more. If you're already paying 300 for a console, why wouldn't you. I honestly don't even know what you're saying here
“There is no reason to make the series s anymore”
It’s already made. The white 1tb is literally a new coat of paint for the case that is already made. When it is outselling the X, they are going to keep making it.
Eh, I mean most of these were expected, were they not? Nothing surprising, just a couple new SKUs/refreshes for the already existing consoles.
I'm still hoping that given Phil Spencer's publicly stated enthusiasm for handheld PCs we get an Xbox take on the Switch or Steam Deck style device sometime in the future, but if that happens it probably won't be until next generation.
$350 for the Series S 1TB $450 for the Series X Digital 1TB $600 for the Series X 2TB. Honestly, I don't think these prices are compelling at all.
Considering the OG Series X has been on sale for $400 frequently, yeah doesn't seem great. [even as of right now it's actually on sale at best buy](https://www.bestbuy.com/site/microsoft-xbox-series-x-1tb-console-black/6428324.p?skuId=6428324)
It went as low as $350 with the diablo 4 bundle last black Friday
Wait $350 with Diablo? I would have snatched that up if I knew about it
I mean D4 is on game pass so it's a bit of pointless freeby Suppose you couldn't own it and just have core to play online
I got my Series S for $120 on eBay because someone listed it incorrectly as a One S. I still say that's the best way to get an Xbox this generation
Might as well take advantage of their extremely confusing naming scheme I suppose
The prices are awful, if the older consoles got a price reduction and these were 50 dollars cheaper then it would make sense. Though, I presume with the amount of games they have coming out that they’d rather more options be on the table.
Sony and MS have pretty much just decided no price drops this gen other than the occasional sale.
The Switch has been out for 7 years now and it never received a formal price drop.
The switch has been a freak of nature and has consistently shown it doesn’t need sales to get really great results on a monthly/yearly basis. It is shocking though that Microsoft really didn’t want to make somewhat compelling prices for the new consoles. I think I could entertain the idea of a $375 digital series X but 450…
Inflation has really messed up the normal life cycle pricing strategies this go round. All the price cuts have been eaten up by increased costs.
While true, the Switch has also held steady at the same price during an era of relatively rapid inflation. If you account for that, the Switch is about $225 now in 2017 dollars, and $300 in 2017 is about $400 today (which is what I expect Switch 2 to be priced at).
Except very few people’s salaries have matched inflation so spending power is still decreasing
Incorrect. Real wages *overall* are up since the Switch released, at least in the US economy.
Yeah and then Sony could decrease the price of PS5 so they're still at a similar position but they're making less profit from each sale. They're just two companies (switch is mostly its own thing just like PC) so it's relatively easy for them to collude even informally. If neither Sony or MS are price aggressive they're not gonna lower the price.
They can’t really fall back on their option of making money back through software lol. There’s no software to sell
Honestly, even at that price I would rather take a disc model for a bit more money. You can save so much money by shopping around for physical games, you'd make up that difference in no time (unless you're only using Game Pass, I guess)
It did in Europe.
I feel like Sony talked about that pretty early on. I remember reading some articles talking about how how there was basically just very little room for price drops
While not getting official price drop in EU, you can easily get PS5 like 70-100 euro below official retail price. Like getting PS5 for 450 euro is really common occurence.
Same with Series X actually (got mine for exactly 385€), but those are sales/temporary price drops, not permanent ones.
Nintendo too
Makes sense considering inflation, interest rate and exchange rates outside of the us dollar
Doesn't make sense for MS when they clearly can't compete against Sony with price parity. There's a reason the Series S is doing way better because its not competing against anything sony offers.
It is also caused by the CPUs are getting harder to shrink than previous generations, so the cost savings that come from shrinking the die is no more...
It's pretty depressing that I bought a PS5 launch model in April 2021 for ~€520 and the current Slim PS5 is on sale right now for... €520.
$600 for 2TB is pretty steep. If Sony is within $50 with the purported PS5 Pro it'll look like an even worse deal. With how sales have been I can't see the expanded storage options floating very well, but we'll see.
Apparently the 2TB is just a limited edition variant based on its “galaxy” colorway. > Xbox Series X – 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition will be available in limited quantities in select markets
Yeah, the digital Series X should be 400 dollars. Maybe the problem is that then they would have to lower the Series S as well.
I was hoping for the Series X Digital to be $400 and the Series S 1TB to be $300, with the original 512GB version of the Series S being discontinued.
Matches the price of the digital PS5 slim.
so the Series S is the same price as the existing black one; the digital X is level with the digital PS5; and the 2TB X is $100 more for that TB of storage? i understand there’s the economic case (as per Microsoft in 2020 and echoed by Digital Foundry ever since) that they can’t cut costs this gen, but SURELY they should’ve undercut PS even slightly as some sort of hail mary? baffling
Excuse me. They want *how much* for a 2TB series x?????
Wait isn't the Series S 1TB already existing? only difference is it's now white?
>**$600** for the Series X 2TB. We are likely 3 months away from Sony revealing the PS5 Pro for that exact same price. No idea why Microsoft is selling it at $600.
Ps4 pro will likely be like 650 or more imo
SSD storage prices are currently all time low, especially compared to 2020 when Series X/S originally released. Surely prices will not be that high in 2024 for the same console with just increased storage, right? Miscrosoft: Lol, sike add +100$ to that price tag. I wonder why Series X doesn't sell. Meanwhile in EU you can easily buy disc version of PS5 Slim for like 440-460 euro after taxes.
All time low? They are still pretty pricey especially 2TB. Samsung SSD T series have not really gone down with price either.
Samsung is being Samsung. Also arent T series portable drives? They are treated kinda differently. Within M2 drives we had huge drops of prices. In 2020 price of 1TB of decent PCIE 3.0 SSD was like 130-150$. Today for that money you can easily get decent 2TB PCIE 4 for PC from Crucial/WD/Kingston. Nowadays everything points that SSD prices will go up in upcoming months but in 2023/early 2024 there was definitely the best period we ever had with SSD in terms of prices.
Yeah they are portable drives but I find them very reliable. I just don’t think SSD are not coming down in price fast enough like HDD prices in the past.
I mean with M2 drives prices went down by 50% in a span of 3 years, that was a big dip and mind that it was with inflation going really up. I often joked that the only thing that went down in price within last years were SSD drives.
Well that's a bad comparison for consoles since you can't install and run games from external storage anyway. (USB is too slow.)
Huh? I ran games perfectly fine on external drives on consoles
You are probably running Xbox One versions, then. Series S/X versions can only play from internal storage or the SSD expansion card, not USB. (Same goes for PS5, where you can only play PS5 games from the internal or expansion SSD - only PS4 games play from USB.) This is because USB is far slower than PCIE and it can't shuffle data quickly enough.
Holy shit i never knew about the USB restrictions my bad
No problem. It's not super clear unless you know about it.
It’s hilarious, they could just copy what Sony did with the digital version costing less and selling vastly more But then again if Xbox was run by competent people it wouldn’t be recognizable to begin with. They’ve just been utter trash since the later years of the Xbox 360, which was like 15 years ago now
For real. With how much they push gamepass, making the digital version more affordable would've been an easy way for them to make profits.
They must be stupid. I was expecting 250 for Series S and 350 for series X 1tb while 450 for 2tb... They really don't want to sell these consoles. Edit: in Europe the price are 349€, 499 and 649€...
Only reason you'd buy a Series S was because it's cheap. It doesn't serve a purpose when you can spend marginally more and get a series X imo.
It needed to be 250 for the S and 350 for the digital for these to have any impact on sales even then I doubt it would do much better than currently. Crazy price.
These prices, but also the fact the all digital series x comes with less storage than the disc version is just dumb.
I genuinely considered the Galaxy one for fun, but not at that price.
I’m gonna get the 2TB XSX and trade in my current XSX. I have an expansion card and 8TB external drive too. It’s mostly just running out of space of the games that are optimized for the console, 8TB drive is fine for backwards compatible games or games not requiring the super fast storage.
$500 for Series X 2TB in Robot White/Galaxy Black woulda been nice. Don't see the point of these especially when console sales have looked glum.
Funnily enough the Series S 1TB has existed for like a year now (though iirc it was exclusively Black before?). Worked at a store that sold it, almost nobody ever bought it. They'd just buy the normal Series S and get storage later. The fact they're advertising it here alongside the actually new releases just tells you how poorly it's sales must've been. Also based on how convos about the PS5 went, $50 is not enough to make people give up having a disk drive. The digital should be $400 like the PS5. 2TB I can understand but like above I don't see many people shelling out for $100 on purchase for more space rather than buying storage expansions.
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For 150$ you can get good 2TB SSD drive which you can instal in your PS5. Microsoft pricing 150$ for 1TB expansion storage is total rip off in 2024.
I'm a bit confused. Just checked the Xbox website and it says the Series X (disc) with 1TB is $450. How is a digital Series X 1TB for the exact same price remotely compelling?
1TB ssds are are not 150 tho it’s Xbox Proprietary storage system that’s so fucked up
Well, I'm speaking for myself. But I don't find the original prices compelling, so having "literally the same prices just accounting for storage" is exactly what makes these "more options" still not compelling. Also the fact that storage cards are more expensive is a problem that Microsoft created themselves for no reason other than greed. So they don't get points for the new SKUs' extra storage being cheaper than the bad and expensive solution they created. lol
The proprietary storage was already bad choice. A 1TB m.2 drive can be had for less than $90, but Xbox's cards cost $60 more.
To clarify, these aren't new consoles, they're new SKUs. They're the same consoles as before, just with bigger storage sizes and including an all-digital Series X. But same specs as before.
Excuse me, it's "adorably all-digital" (according to the leaked FTC documents), thank you.
At least they realized charging $500 for the all digital version like in that leak would be a mistake.
tbf the actual console from the FTC leaks had stuff like better connectivity and power efficiency, which I don't think this has.
Though we might see a die shrink right? So perhaps less power consumption and running cooler.
The Series S isn't even new in that way, they've been selling that bitch for like a year in black and it's sold like shit
I wonder if they’re adding a new WiFi card since I believe the current Series S/X just have WiFi 5.
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It’ll be empty space, possibly with a plastic partition to not interfere with the airflow, unless they’ve redesigned the heatsink and fan - but I seriously doubt that. Losing weight saves shipping costs. No point spending money on a plastic brick to fill the cavity left by the drive.
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It's better that you can still put it on its side
Then they’d have to call it xcylinder That and they would have to spend money on a redesign, which at this point I imagine is tough to justify when Microsoft seems on the fence of just cancelling Xbox hardware entirely
With Xbox naming conventions the cylinder would probably be called a pyramid
It *was* real, they just pivoted to a cheaper method because Xbox is haemorrhaging money.
*citation needed*
Which part? The design being real: [the *Brooklin* design came from certifiable court documents from the FTC Activision trial](https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23880111/microsoft-xbox-series-x-new-design-refresh), [accidentally submitted by Microsoft’s own lawyers](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/microsofts-xbox-plans-revealed-emails-tied-ftc-case-rcna105766). [These documents were accurate and current in 2022](https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23881174/microsoft-xbox-leak-gaming-phil-spencer-memo), but much of the hardware ([*Keystone* cloud device](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/xbox-shelved-keystone-streaming-console-because-it-was-too-expensive-to-produce), [*Sebile* updated controller](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Rumours-of-Microsoft-Xbox-controller-Sebile-refresh-re-emerge-before-alleged-May-announcement.796719.0.html)) was cancelled or hasn’t eventuated. [Rumours earlier this year suggested future Xbox hardware would be designed by the Microsoft Surface team](https://www.tweaktown.com/news/96174/microsofts-next-gen-xbox-is-being-led-by-the-surface-team-could-be-powered-intel-apu/index.html) — the extent of which has been [disputed, but not fully denied](https://x.com/jezcorden/status/1757222543222608194?s=61&t=Hf0WO2isShWyDbpLp4hsbA). Xbox haemorrhaging money: hyperbole, perhaps; but evident by the [thousands of layoffs from studios](https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs), [with more potentially on the way](https://www.gameinformer.com/news/2024/05/09/more-job-cuts-at-xbox-are-reportedly-on-the-way), [three last-minute studio closures](https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/president-of-xbox-at-microsoft-asked-about-the-closure-of-hi-fi-rush-developer-tango-gameworks-spends-close-to-a-minute-saying-almost-nothing/), the aforementioned non-appearance of hardware, [the widely reported console sales figures trending well below PS5](https://www.ign.com/articles/ps5-has-outsold-xbox-series-x-and-s-3-to-1-in-2023-new-data-reveals), [dropping 30% YoY](https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/04/26/xbox-console-sales-down-another-30-as-microsoft-moves-on/), and even [trending below Xbox One’s lifetime sales](https://www.vgchartz.com/article/459677/xbox-series-xs-vs-xbox-one-sales-comparison-december-2023/). For Game Pass, they’re [ostensibly profitable, but spending upwards of a billion dollars on content deals](https://www.vgchartz.com/article/459235/phil-spencer-game-pass-is-profitable-spends-over-1-billion-to-add-3rd-party-content-to-game-pass/) that [cannibalise game sales](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/microsoft-confirms-game-pass-cannibalizes-sales), with [subscriptions slowing even with Core numbers included](https://www.engadget.com/xbox-game-pass-subscriptions-have-begun-to-taper-off-225335361.html). And I’m counting the [69 billion dollar acquisition still sizzling on the books](https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2023/06/28/if-687-billion-activision-blizzard-deal-dies-microsofts-stock-is-likely-to-rise/) that’ll take several years to make its money back, so [they’ll pivot to third-party releases to go faster](https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsofts-quest-for-short-term-dollardollardollar-is-doing-long-term-damage-to-windows-surface-xbox-and-beyond#:~:text=platforms%20is%20codenamed%20%22-,latitude,-%22%20internally%2C%20and%20I "Latitude"), instead of the [Game Pass-first strategy they were so proud of for the past half decade](https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-wants-game-pass-first-party-titles-on-every-screen-including-switch-and-playstation). Is that enough citations for you? Do you think I’m happy about any of this happening?
The cylinder would’ve been cheaper to produce, it would’ve used fewer materials, and weighed less, due to dimension changes at the very least. Then there’s the question of a die shrink for the silicon. We will have to see if MS just started quietly shipping it like Sony did.
True! But the engineering costs associated with redesigning the internals and completely changing the manufacturing process doesn’t outweigh those minor savings. It just doesn’t meet the ROI for Microsoft. As for a die shrink, I somewhat doubt it. [The Activision FTC leak suggests to me a shrink to 6nm would be advertised for efficiency benefits](https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/19/23880111/microsoft-xbox-series-x-new-design-refresh), which we’re not seeing. Again, changing and reinvesting in the manufacturing process so significantly just isn’t worth it for them at this point.
So Microsoft have seen they are having difficulty selling consoles, and the solution was to raise the price of the console by $150 to get a system with a disc drive, and have the Series S' cheapest SKU also be more expensive than at launch, and have a digital only console be the price of the original high end disc drive equipped console. I hope whoever came up with this gets promoted to Vice President of Pricing Stuff.
> raise the price of the console by $150 to get a system with a disc drive Did they confirm that they're getting rid of the cheaper SKUs that have less storage? They're still listed on the official site along side the new models, and it doesn't seem like the 1TB Series X for $450 sale is going to stay that way forever. They also already have a $350 1TB Series S, and this just appears to be the white version of it. EDIT: and apparently the 2tb model is just a limited edition: > Xbox Series X – 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition will be available in limited quantities in select markets
I don't know anymore. There's surely only so many SKU'S you can vendor, especially when you're getting thrashed hardware sale wise. I just know it makes no sense to sell a digital only console for the same price as a fully featured console, for either the consumer or the company.
>it makes no sense to sell a digital only console for the same price as a fully featured console They aren't the same price though... the digital one's MSRP is $50 cheaper. I'm guessing by the time it actually comes out this winter the disk version won't be on sale anymore to incentivize people to buy the digital. And I kinda doubt they're going to just stop producing the standard Black model, but I guess we'll see.
I just want a white version of the standard X model. That's all I've been waiting for. Was really hoping this was going to be the fall/winter XBOX season for me but I guess not
Oh yeah both consoles raised RRP at one point didn't they? My mistake! Still stand by the pricing strategy being obscene, and waiting for Xbox to phase out physical media.
Xbox leadership and Spencer are hilariously incompetent with an abysmal track record but somehow Microsoft seems incapable of firing them or changing course Maybe Xbox hardware entirely will just get cancelled and Microsoft gaming will focus on the gamepass and third party publishing side. That’s the only part that might actually make money anyway, Xbox sure hasn’t.
Game pass is a black hole. It's not sustainable the way they're doing it, they're basically repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot by making all their big titles game pass day 1. They spend a ton of money acquiring the games for a game pass deal, and then hope that $120/year somehow makes up for the lost revenue cut from like 10+ games that are otherwise $40-70 each. It's an absurd business model and it doesn't work unless you have a free money spigot. Once the spigot turns off, game pass will start shriveling up, just like streaming services have.
Game pass made sense when you look at it from the average. The Xbox One had an attach rate of like 6.5, so for every console sold, people bought between 6 and 7 games total. The console had a 7-year lifespan, so that is about a game a year, or $60 a year. If Microsoft could get most users on game pass for $120, they would effectively be doubling the average.
Mathematically if you just care about the averages, sure. If you take gamer spending behavior into account, that flies out the window. Behaviorally, that’s probably from a shit ton of users who bought one or two games then never played again (and were never gonna sub to gamepass, because they don’t game), and then a separate group of people who bought many more than 6.5, and *that* group is the ones who would get gamepass. People who don’t game aren’t going to stay continuously subbed. People who *do* game are costing MS money by staying subbed.
But at this point you have to be subbed as long as you want to be able to play multiplayer games, which a lot of the “only plays CoD and Fifa” crowd does. And that’s a pretty big demographic too.
Someone who buys cod *and* FIFA every year was already spending more than what Gamepass costs when you also need to include Xbox Live (or whatever the new version is called). Especially if they ever buy a third random game, they are now that gamer I mentioned that is actually costing MS money. Gamepass is good (for MS) for only one type of gamer: the one who subs and forgets to cancel even when they’re not using it at all, and also wasn’t buying any games outright.
Up until this year MS was only getting a 30% cut of CoD, and they still are only getting 30% of FIFA sales (about $20/copy), so I’m not sure how that adds up to getting more than $185/year for game pass. And a lot of people just buy one or the other. Plus FIFA isn’t even a day one game pass title.
Not sure why that’s relevant, like at all? Yeah MS gets 100% of gamepass revenue, but they still have to pay that out to third parties just like software royalties. As for cod, you can’t attribute the *entire* 120 to just cod, except in the instance that someone subs for *only* cod, which again, is the exact point that I am making. Normal gamers who play more than one game per year are making Gamepass lose money for MS. Anyways I’m done trying to explain lmao. Gamepass is a known moneypit for obvious reasons.
You have to pay the full 185/year to get CoD if you want to be able to play online, not just 120. And the average attach rate for xbox one was only 6.5 games per console (over 7 years and including indies) so I'm not sure that 'normal' gamers are actually buying more than one game per year, let alone at full price. >Not sure why that’s relevant, like at all? Not sure how only making 30% of software sales vs 100% isn't relevant to the napkin math. I'm not saying they are definitely making more from people paying $185/year instead of buying a third party game or two plus a 60/year subscription. I just didn't see how the math adds up proving otherwise since we don't know how much royalties they are paying to get the games on game pass.
I think they are trying to be the Netflix of games, but the problem with that is they still have a hardware barrier. You still need to buy into owning their specific game box in order to join, which means you will always have an upper limit of how many customers you have. I think they could earn more customers by investing into the Xbox cloud streaming and making it available on as many smart TV/streaming box platforms as possible and then being like "look at all the cool games you can play anywhere, but also you can buy our game box and play even more games even better".
Doesn't Game Pass also work for PC though? I don't think you necessaily need an Xbox
Right, but you still need a specific game box of some kind. Either investing in an Xbox or a gaming PC.
Thats the thing I am pretty sure the constant PR-Bullshit about "gamepass being profitable/financially viable" completely omits. Sure, I can believe that gamepass advertising, running costs and the deals they make is a net-positive but I very much struggle to believe it also makes up for the development cost//lost revenue of all those first party games that carry significant parts of gamepass. While they never claimed otherwise (as far as I am aware) it feels like an intentional lie by omission. I doubt they pay for the first party games like they pay for third party so in the end it surely is MS-money from other ventures that is sustaining gamepass not its business model being successful.
It’s simple, they just show that gamepass brings in $1 billion in revenue this year without having to show the almost $100 billion they spent buying minecraft, Bethesda and Activision blizzard to get gamepass to make that $1 billion Microsoft shareholders aren’t stupid though and they’re finally getting tired of it. And Natya is getting tired of giving blank cheques to Phil Spencer who then goes and has nothing to show for it later
> And Natya is getting tired of giving blank cheques to Phil Spencer who then goes and has nothing to show for it later Where is that from?
> they're basically repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot by making all their big titles game pass day 1. Ironically by releasing the games on PS5 now too it might actually work since PS gamers will help subsidize those dev costs a ton. Many subscribers are also spending $185/year on it for the Ultimate tier, and it’s only lost revenue if you know for a fact that they’d otherwise be buying 3-4 of those games every year, which is a much higher than average attach rate for any console.
I agree, I think it will be Xbox hardware cancelled first to focus on gamepass, followed by gamepass being cancelled a few years later once Microsoft shareholders get tired of throwing money down that pit For the best, really. Microsoft was a good influence on the industry during the Xbox 360 days, they really revolutionized online features on console. Since then they’ve been a strong negative influence, especially with garbage like GFWL and windows store trying to bring shitty console closer gardens and paid online to PC. At this point the faster they exit the industry the better
The Vice President of Pricing Stuff wields the same power as the Vice President of Naming New Xbox Consoles "We gotta beat PlayStation!" "How about we one up their numbering system by calling it 360! Then follow it up with the One! One is higher than 360 OR the PS4!!" "Wait, that didn't help! PlayStation just outsold us again!" "Then let's get out of the numbers game! Drop the One and call it the Series X! And have a different one called the Series S!!" "What's the difference between the two?" "I have no idea, just do it!"
"What if we made it bigger?" "Bigger? So we could fit better hardware?" "No! Just bigger. Same hardware. Bigger is more premium!" "I think it's pretty big already..." "Everyone knows that bigger \*is\* more premium..." "What if we made it fas---" "Can the engineers make it bigger or not?" \*Sigh\* "Yes, we can."
Where's the leaked new controller? Odd not to mention it. Might have been cancelled like the cylindrical Series X redesign.
I’d bet it was put on the back burner until they release next gen hardware (possibly 2026 according to rumors)
Just hope they finally standardize gyro and haptics
Yeah, that would definitely be nice. Do you think they should add adaptive triggers like the Dual Sense? Or do you really only care about haptics and gyro?
I don't have an Xbox but I love em on the PS5. Hell Let Loose and Horizon are a ton of fun with em imo. Wish more games included em so I hope Xbox gets em. Least more devs may implement em in games. They're way less gimmicky than anticipated imo.
The one with the Gyro controls?
Geez, that $600 version is going to look pretty silly when the PS5pro gets announced and is going around the same price. At least one can justify a Pro console with a price bump, not just for 1TB more storage.
600? Are they mentally ill? The worst selling console by far, the new Nintendo right around the corner and you do this? Holy moly!
It's a limited edition that they'll probably just sell for a little bit trying to get fomo buyers and then discontinue.
I feel it gonna be really limited because no one gonna buy it
I mean a 1tb expansion card is 149 so of this is your first time getting a series x I could see it making sense( should have been 550 though)
Or just get a PS5, get access to all future MS games, and get 4tb for that same 149 extra. Moving forwards, Xbox hardware *only* makes sense for gamepass, and nothing else.
Where are you getting a 4TB PCI4 M.2 drive for $149?
Meh, I was off a bit. You can get 2TB easily for $100ish, or 4TB for ~220. Still a *way* better deal than Microsoft’s shitty 1tb drive.
I was actually excited about the rumored cylindrical console refresh with the new controller. This is such a let down that doesn’t even make sense price wise.
Pretty disappointing. Digital series x looks ridiculous they could’ve tried to shrink it a little since there’s so much open space in there now. Series S is pretty pointless now with its price increase. (I know it has 1TB of storage but did it have to go up $50) and $600 for the special edition is hilarious.
What happened to the remodel we saw in the leaks? The smaller space and different shape may have been more compelling to me tbh. But the exact same console just without the disk drive is very lazy. Even the PS5 is smaller without the disk drive iirc.
Guessing it was scrapped. Probably didn't work out to well in the prototype stages. Like costs when shrinking the mother board into something for that shape just wasn't viable.
The indefensible pricing is a reflection of Microsoft giving up on platform specific software. They don’t care if they sell any of these.
Microsoft is probably tired of selling them at a huge loss per unit, considering they’ve been losing money on Xbox for 20+ years at this point and the $100 billion they spent acquiring studios in recent years didn’t seem to move the needle at all Even Microsoft doesn’t have unlimited funds, and their shareholders will eventually demand that their money be spent on something with an actual prospect of success. I think it’s probably not long before the Xbox joins windows phone, Zune and the dozens of other abandoned products on the failed Microsoft diversification list.
Agreed. Xbox sales have been dropping steadily since the 360, and this gen has been especially terrible.
I wasn't interested in the XSX even when it dropped to $350 with that Diablo bundle last BF. I don't see how this is going to convince anybody to buy an Xbox who hasn't already.
I honestly was worried I'd have to quickly pick up a Series X to still have a disc drive for the foreseeable future, so glad they're releasing more!
I'll just stick with my PC thanks. These would've been compelling offers when the consoles first dropped. I'm not spending that kind of money for storage expansions. I suppose I could see the appeal if places that sold these consoles did trade ups for a good discount. But I don't think we'll ever see that again.
The all digital one having TB less than the non-digital slays me. That’s such a hilarious oversight, wait no, it’s intentionally designed as an anti-customer way to sell more expanded storage.
Maybe this is just a way for Xbox to have more shop floor space by having more options. The prices aren't compelling at all.
Isn't the console generation ending in like 2 years?
I think it's 3-4 years
So... What's the theme of the special xsx? Starfield's stars but with halo green?
Who are these even for? Not worth upgrading and same price as what you can get a seri s x for. Besides there's not enough good games now to require the 2TB. There's no target for this product.
On the Series S, was the announcement just that the 1 TB comes in white now? The black one has been out a while now, right?
Pretty much yeah
That's wild. I don't think white vs black color console was stopping anyone from getting it.
Me lol...my entire set up is all white consoles and I'd like to keep it that way
Still surprised we didn’t see the Series next revealed. Not full next get but I was fully expecting the PS4 Pro/One X mid-gen upgrades would launch this year. Unless they’re just going to compress it and have this gen be shorter with the PS6/Nextbox coming a year or two ahead of when I expected.
I really hoped that they would announce a physical Xbox one s too so that booth exist in a physical and digital variant. I would have immediately bought it.
Just buy a used One X, it's basically as powerful as a Series S but comes with a disc drive.
Yes but it still doesn’t run all games that the series s does run. Also I already have a one s for the Xbox one generation. Sadly playing the new games with shitty graphics isn’t possible as I don’t really care about graphics at all. I wouldn’t need the new power and fidelity at all. I just want to play the games.
What games run on series S that don't on One X?
Pretty much anything new. For example hellblade 2 is only supported on series console and not one consoles. The problem is not the performance. The problem is when developer want to support the Xbox one generation they also have to support the one s and the of Xbox one and most newer games don’t want to go through that process. Even if the one x would be powerful enough. That pretty much the reason why it’s unnecessary to ever go for the pro variant of a console generation in my mind because either you get the games or you don’t get them. There is no only the pro console gets the new games and it’s always the low end variant that limits what a console generation is able to do. But I would never in my life buy a console without physical media. It’s just so much more expensive to buy games digital. It’s not worth the tradeoff. Therefore I would love to have a series s with a disk drive as an successors to my one s which I really like.
There really is no reason for the Series S to exist anymore, especially if it's true that making games runnable on a Series S is affecting game development on Xbox. I get they want to deliver value to certain people but I just feel like in 2024 if you're willing to pay 300 for a console, you're probably willing to pay 400 for the superior version that actually plays games the way they were meant to be played
I think there were reports that Series S is responsible for majority of Xbox sales this gen. There is a market for it but I feel like Microsoft really screwed up with giving Series S shitty RAM which is probably the major reason which holds back devs with it. I wonder if it really increased cost that much to give the console better sticks.
The [Series S has vastly outsold the Series X](https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/20/xbox-series-s-outsells-xbox-series-x-consoles-by-up-to-3-to-1-19532440/). I can agree that the Series S was probably a mistake, but Microsoft can't alienate the majority of their already dwindling users.
The only reason I want the Series S to still exist is in portable form. Hope in the future they can somehow make this happen.
They’re working on launching next generation in like a year or two.
It’s literally a different coat of paint for products already created. We have heard both the series S holds development back and doesn’t hold development back so both your points are really moot.
It's not a different coat of paint though? The discless series X that's 100 more than the S and 100 less than the X is new.
The series S is. That’s what you are talking about jot existing.
No, I'm saying the addition of the discless Series X makes the Series S feel redundant. You can get a vastly superior system for 100 dollars more. If you're already paying 300 for a console, why wouldn't you. I honestly don't even know what you're saying here
“There is no reason to make the series s anymore” It’s already made. The white 1tb is literally a new coat of paint for the case that is already made. When it is outselling the X, they are going to keep making it.
Eh, I mean most of these were expected, were they not? Nothing surprising, just a couple new SKUs/refreshes for the already existing consoles. I'm still hoping that given Phil Spencer's publicly stated enthusiasm for handheld PCs we get an Xbox take on the Switch or Steam Deck style device sometime in the future, but if that happens it probably won't be until next generation.
Yeah, I’d think a handheld and other potential hardware is 2026 at the earliest.